More Senior Staff Changes at the Texas Department of Insurance

After 24 years of service with the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI), General Counsel Sara Wait will be retiring in December 2015. Wait has had a distinguished career at TDI after starting as a law clerk in TDI’s liquidation division and serving two stints at a private law firm.

On November 17, TDI announced that existing Chief Clerk Norma Garcia has been promoted to the role of General Counsel. In addition, Associate Commissioner Stan Strickland will become the Deputy Commissioner of TDI’s Legal Division.

These changes follow the retirement of long-time TDI Deputy Commissioner Danny Saenz, who left the Department in August after 27 years of service. Following Saenz’s departure, Associate Commissioner Doug Slape was promoted to Deputy Commissioner of Financial Regulation. In addition, Kevin Brady became TDI’s new Deputy Commissioner for Agency Affairs.

In January of this year, outgoing Texas Governor Rick Perry appointed David Mattax as TDI’s Commissioner. Mattax had a distinguished career at the Texas Attorney General’s office and served as past chief of the Attorney General’s Financial Litigation Division, which handles insurance-related litigation on behalf of the State of Texas. Mattax replaced Julia Rathgeber, who left TDI to become Deputy Chief of Staff for newly-elected Governor Greg Abbott.

TDI regulates the tenth largest insurance market in the world.